value as food. He is wrong in
considering worthless a deposit of muck, which is a mine of wealth if
properly employed. He is wrong in _ventilating_ his stables at the cost
of _heat_. He is wrong in his treatment of his manures, for he loses
more than one half of their value from evaporation, fermentation, and
leaching. He is wrong in not having water at hand for his cattle--their
exercise detracts from their accumulation of fat and their production of
heat, and it exposes them to cold. He is wrong in not protecting his
fattening stock from the cold of winter; for, under exposure to cold,
the food, which would otherwise be used in the formation of _fat_, goes
to the production of the animal heat necessary to counteract the
chilling influence of the weather, p. 50. He is wrong in allowing his
manure to lie unprotected in the barn-yard. He is wrong in not adding to
his tools the deep surface plow, the subsoil plow, the cultivator, and
many others of improved construction. He is wrong in cultivating with
the plow and hoe, those crops which could be better or more cheaply
managed with the cultivator or horse-hoe. He is wrong in many things
more, as we shall see if we examine all of his yearly routine of work.
He is right in a few things; and but a few, as he himself would admit,
had he that knowledge of his business which he could obtain in the
leisure hours of a single winter. Still, he thinks himself a _practical_
farmer. In twenty years, we shall have fewer such, for our young men
have the mental capacity and mental energy necessary to raise them to
the highest point of practical education, and to that point they are
gradually but surely rising.

Let us now place this same farm in the hands of an educated and
understanding cultivator; and, at the end of five years, look at it
again.

He has sold one half of it, and cultivates but fifty acres. The money
for which the other fifty were sold has been used in the improvement of
the farm. The land has all been under-drained, and shows the many
improvements consequent on such treatment. The stones and small rocks
have been removed, leaving the surface of the soil smooth, and allowing
the use of the sub-soil plow, which with the under-drains have more than
doubled the productive power of the farm. Sufficient labor is employed
to cultivate with improved tools, extensive root crops, and they
invariably give a large yield. The grass land produces a yearly average
of 2-1/2 tons of